Basil II is succeeded as emperor Constantine VIII, his brother and co-ruler

1268:

Death of Haakon IV "the Old," King of Norway

1485:

Katherine of Aragon born

1562:

Mary Stuart holds her second interview with John Knox

1643:

Thomas Kingo. A clergyman and poet whose works are considered the high point of Danish Baroque poetry. born

1657:

Michel-Richard Delalande He was the leading composer of sacred music in France in the early 18th century, one of the few composers who asserted any influence while Jean-Baptiste Lully lived. born

1788:

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach died

1791:

The first ten amendments to the US Constitution -- the Bill of Rights -- went into effect following ratification by Virginia

1793:

Economist Henry C(harles) Carey. American economist and sociologist, often called the founder of the American school of economics, widely known in his day as an advocate of protectionism. born

1820:

British theologian and preacher John Caird He was an exponent of theism in Hegelian terms. born

1832:

Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel born

1852:

Physicist Henri Becquerel. French physicist who discovered radioactivity through his investigations of uranium and other substances. In 1903 he shared the Nobel Prize for Physics with Pierre and Marie Curie. born

1859:

Polish linguist Ludwik Zamenhof, creator of the international language Esperanto born

1861:

Charles Edgar Duryea, with his brother, invented 1st auto to be built and operated in US. born

1862:

Nathan B. Forrest crosses the Tennessee River at Clifton with 2,500 men to raid the communications around Vicksburg

1877:

Patent granted to Mr. Edison for the phonograph

1883:

William A. Hinton, developer of the "Hinton Test" for diagnosing syphilis. born

1888:

Playwright Maxwell Anderson born

1890:

In an attempt to arrest Sitting Bull at his Standing Rock, South Dakota, cabin, shooting breaks out and Lt. Bullhead shoots the great Sioux leader. In the ensuing fracas eleven other tribe members were killed

1892:

Billionaire oilman John Paul Getty. American oil billionaire reputed to be the richest man in the world at the time of his death. He owned a controlling interest in Getty Oil Company and in nearly 200 other concerns. born

Songwriter and bandleader Stan Kenton (Artistry In Rhythm; How High the Moon, September Song, Laura) born

1916:

The French defeated the Germans in the World War One Battle of Verdun

1918:

Portuguese President Sidoni is assassinated

1920:

Baseball player Eddie Robinson born

1922:

Disc jockey Alan Freed (WJW, Cleveland, WINS & WABC, New York: The Moondoggy Show; fired on air at WABC for alleged involvement in the payola scandal of the late 1950s) born

1924:

Soviets warn the U.S. against repeated entry of ships into the territorial waters of the USSR

1928:

Country singer Ernest Ashworth born

1928:

Ventriloquist Jimmy Nelson (Danny O'Day, Farfel the Dog) born

1932:

Edna O'Brien Irish novelist, short-story writer, and screenwriter whose work has been noted for its portrayal of women, evocative description, and sexual candour. born

1933:

Actor-comedian Tim Conway born

1938:

Groundbreaking ceremonies for the Jefferson Memorial took place in Washington DC

1938:

Washington sends its fourth note to Berlin demanding amnesty for Jews

1939:

Singer Cindy Birdsong (The Supremes) born

1939:

The motion picture "Gone With the Wind" had its world premiere in Atlanta

1939:

Nylon yarn was sold to hosiery mills to make women's stockings; marking the first use of commercial yarn for apparel. The DuPont product enabled a record number of ladies' hose to go on sale for the first time in May, 1940. And it all started in nylon's hometown: Wilmington, Delaware

1941:

The first automobile licenses are issued by the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities. They are made from plastic

1941:

A musical standard was recorded on Victor Records. Lena Horne sang the torch classic that became her signature: "Stormy Weather."

Famed composer, blues singer, piano and pipe organ player, Fats (Thomas Wright) Waller, died at the age of 39 from pneumonia. He began playing piano at the age of six, recording songs by 16. A few of his many songs include On the Sunny Side of the Street, I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Ain't Misbehavin', I've Got a Feeling I'm Fallin', Honeysuckle Rose, I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter and It's a Sin to Tell a Lie

1944:

A single-engine plane carrying bandleader Glenn Miller, a US Army major, disappeared over the English Channel while en route to Paris

1946:

Rock musician Carmine Appice (Vanilla Fudge) born

1946:

Vietnam leader Ho Chi Minh sends a note to the new French Premier, Leon Blum, asking for peace talks

1948:

A federal grand jury in New York indicted former State Department official Alger Hiss on perjury charges

1948:

President Nixon announces the third round of Vietnam withdrawals. While the military is responsible for fighting a war, its civilian superiors determine how it will be fought

After a decade on radio, "Captain Midnight" was heard for the final time

1954:

Movie director Alex Cox ("Repo Man") born

1954:

Actor Justin Ross born

1954:

"Davy Crockett, Indian Fighter" was featured on Walt Disney's TV series for the first time. Crockett was played by Fess Parker. It wasn't long before the Davy Crockett craze brought a new number one song to the pop music charts. "Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier."

Adolf Eichmann, the former German Gestapo official accused of a major role in the Nazi murder of 6 million Jews, is sentenced by a Jerusalem court to be hanged. Adolf Eichmann was the administrator of the so-called Final Solution and supervised the transportation of prisoners to concentration camps

1962:

The first record album to poke fun at a U.S. President became the #1LP in the country. Vaughn Meader's "The First Family" made the humorist a household word. The album stayed at #1 for three months

1963:

Actress Helen Slater born

1964:

Canada's House of Commons approved dropping the "Red Ensign" flag in favor of a new design

1965:

1st rendevous in space

1965:

The U.S. drops 12 tons of bombs on an industrial center near Haiphong

1966:

Movie producer Walt Disney died in Los Angeles

1967:

President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the meat bill in the presence of Upton Sinclair the author of the controversial book "The Jungle."

1972:

The Commonwealth of Australia orders equal pay for women

1973:

The American Psychiatric Association reversed its longstanding position and declared that homosexuality is not a mental illness

1974:

Bert Jones, quarterback of the Baltimore Colts, set an NFL record by completing seventeen consecutive passes in a game against the New York Jets

1977:

"Crowd-hyper" Kito Trawick (Ghostown DJs) born

1980:

Yankees this day for somewhere between $1.3 and $1.5 million. He become the wealthiest player in the history of U.S. team sports

1982:

Teamsters Union President Roy Williams and four others were convicted in federal court of conspiring to bribe Senator Howard Cannon, D-Nev

1986:

Violinist Isaac Stern arrived in a horse-drawn carriage to cut the ribbon for the renovated Carnegie Hall in New York City

1987:

Gary Hart, who had dropped out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination amid questions about his relationship with Miami model Donna Rice, made a surprise return to the campaign, saying, "Let's let the people decide."

1988:

US Ambassador Robert H. Pelletreau Junior telephoned the PLO's headquarters in Tunisia, one day after President Reagan authorized direct talks

1989:

Drug trafficker Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha was killed in northern Colombia following a shootout with police

1989:

A popular uprising that resulted in the downfall of Romania's Nicolae Ceausescu began as demonstrators gathered in Timisoara to prevent the arrest of the Reverend Laszlo Tokes, a dissident clergyman

1990:

European Community leaders wrapped up a historic summit in Rome committed to creating a politically unified federation

1990:

With one month left before a U.N. deadline for Iraq to leave Kuwait, Iraq gave no indication it was prepared to pull out

1991:

At least 464 people were left dead or missing when an Egyptian-registered ferry sank in the Red Sea

1992:

President-elect Clinton concluded a two-day conference on the economy, saying the nation must tame "the monster of spiraling health care costs" if it was ever to slash the huge budget deficit

1992:

IBM announced it would eliminate 25,000 more employees in the coming year

In Geneva, 117 countries completed the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, agreeing on a reform package intended to kick-start the global economy

1993:

John Williams made his final appearance as the conductor of the Boston Pops this week. On this night Williams conducted Leroy Anderson's "Sleigh Ride" and the "Hallellujah Chorus" from "Messiah," among other things

1994:

President Clinton, in a 12-minute prime-time address, presented a package of tax cuts for middle-income families raising children, and outlined deep reductions in government programs to help pay for them

1995:

President Clinton defied a deadline for turning over a former aide's Whitewater notes, prompting a deeply divided Senate investigative committee to vote to challenge him in federal court. (The White House agreed six days later to turn over the notes.)

Over Republican objections, President Clinton appointed Bill Lann Lee acting assistant attorney general for civil rights

1998:

President Clinton concluded his three-day Middle East journey on a disappointing note as Israel refused to resume the West Bank troop withdrawals called for under the Wye River peace accord; nevertheless, Clinton declared his trip a success

1999:

With President Clinton's close mediation, Syria reopened peace talks with Israel in Washington

2005:

Violence cuts short visit of Dominican Republic president

2005:

Business Brief for December 15, 2005

2005:

NYC transit strike looming

2005:

Mozilla, Internet Explorer adopt universal RSS symbol

2005:

White supremacist New Zealanders provoked by Sydney riots

2005:

Constitutional challenge to secret trials in Australian courts

2005:

British scientists claim warmest yet in Northern Hemisphere

2005:

Peru-Chile rivalry erupts into Cyberspace

2006:

Ed Stelmach sworn in as new Alberta premier

2006:

South Korea says North Korea will test more nuclear bombs

2006:

Court of Appeal upholds Ontario's talks with Caledonia

2006:

Four dead, more than a million in U.S. without power after Pacific Northwest storm